Starwood Marriott merger to be officially declared today.

[drron]

In a little under an hour the merger becomes official.
It is expected that some details of the merger of the loyalty programs will be part of that announcement.
But assured full merger of loyalty programs will not take place until 2018.
There will be an announcement concerning cross recognition between SPG and Marriott rewards.
Interesting times.

 

[Jonova]

The linking is now live. Can be done at http://www.spg.com/linkmarriott

 

[drron]

Celebrations at the SGS-

.

 

[moa999]

Wonder if this changes Starwoods Lifetime qualification... Has anyone hit it?

 

[drron]

I am LTG but will qualify LTP some time in 2017.So will make it.No definite commitment to transfer to LTP in Marriott in 2018 but I am guessing you really don't want to p*** off your most loyal customers so reasonably relaxed about it.Marriott do have a greater number of nights to reach LTP than Starwood but also a points minimum which I easily reach with SPG points.

 

[JohnPhelan]

Wonder if this changes Starwoods Lifetime qualification... Has anyone hit it?

Not at the moment, because the two programs continue to operate on their own (old) rules. The issue may arise whenever the loyalty programs are merged.

SPG has lower night/stay thresholds for LTG and LTP. They also have better benefits at both levels. Of course, the fair thing to do would be to give both groups the same as their current lifetime status levels in the new program. But the issue will be whether the benefits of those levels stay the same as the more generous SPG approach, or the more stingy MR.

 

[Haplo]

The 3:1 transfer rate really opens up many opportunities for Amex Membership Reward card holder as it allows them to redeem Marriott nights at a far cheaper rate than SPG.

 

[cmon0005]

I linked my SPG Gold to my base Marriott account and was matched to Marriott Gold.. Transferred 30,000 MR points into 10,000 SPG points as SPG is my preferred program.

 

[potm]

Very happy being a gold from the amex platinum card and now being gifted marriot gold
The 3 to 1 rate seems pretty even with good value properties in both portfolios at that level.

 

[MikeeB]

The fact we can now transfer our starpoints to United Mileageplus via Marriott Rewards at a very favourable rate is the best winner out of the merger for me so far. Plus the automatic status match

 

[samh004]

Looks interesting. Might have to tell dad to increase his nights so he gets to LTG before the merge.

 

[albyd]

Apologies if I'm not posting this in the right area. I'm currently SPG Gold and HH Diamond. My understanding is that phase 1 of the rewards merger between Marriott & SPG is mutual status match. If I were to do a status match with Marriott from HH Diamond to Marriott Platinum, that should reflect in my SPG as Platinum. Everything I've read suggests Marriott has status challenges not matches. Have I misunderstood and I can in fact get a status match from HH Diamond?

 

[defurax]

Just linked my SPG account to Marriott and became Marriott Gold Elite instantly! This year has been a bit crazy for hotel status, I used to only have status on Accor, but this year due to status matches and challenges promo I'm now gold with Accor, SPG, Hilton and Marriott! It's nice...but I feel I will loose all status in 2017/18 since I'm now spreading my hotel bookings across too many hotel brands...

 

[cmon0005]

Looks interesting. Might have to tell dad to increase his nights so he gets to LTG before the merge.

At this stage LT status will not get carried over when status match occurs, according to the FAQ's and twitter questions.

 

[NZflygirl]

Just linked my SPG account to Marriott and became Marriott Gold Elite instantly! This year has been a bit crazy for hotel status, I used to only have status on Accor, but this year due to status matches and challenges promo I'm now gold with Accor, SPG, Hilton and Marriott! It's nice...but I feel I will loose all status in 2017/18 since I'm now spreading my hotel bookings across too many hotel brands...

A status match sounds great but I think for me the reality is I'm unlikely to stay at a Marriott. I have 6 hotel programs as it is.
I think I'm staying at either a Marriott or ritz Carlton place later but I booked it under hotels.com and didn't realise until afterwards it was part of a chain. I can't be a part of all of them and I can't commit to just one or 2 as location and a few other things matter to me. If I get my SPG benefits when visiting a Marriott etc without having to do anything extra well then that would be ok I'd stay if it was convenient.

 

[boomy]

For me best benefits from this merger as SPG Platinum is complementary UA Silver which earns minimum 1,000 Miles on Hertz rentals and the option to convert 38K SPG to 114K MR to 50K UA (112K MR = 50K UA) which is almost return J flight to South Asia.

No plans to stay with Marriott in the near future but I hope they will honour my SPG Lifetime Gold in the final merger and invest in better properties in Australia.

 

[albyd]

Just linked my SPG account to Marriott and became Marriott Gold Elite instantly! This year has been a bit crazy for hotel status, I used to only have status on Accor, but this year due to status matches and challenges promo I'm now gold with Accor, SPG, Hilton and Marriott! It's nice...but I feel I will loose all status in 2017/18 since I'm now spreading my hotel bookings across too many hotel brands...

I turned my soon to be defunct Accor Platinum from AMEX Platinum Charge card to HHonours Diamond. I'm giving Hilton properties a try particularly to use the diamond benefits. I've traditionally concentrated my stays with SPG as I enjoy staying at SPG properties. If I switch sides, can always get the Macquarie HH card to re-qualify (cringing at the thought if spending $40K at 1 HH/$).

Not sure I'll switch sides - will likely continue with most stays at SPG. Was thus looking to Leverage HH Diamond into Marriott Platinum for SPG Platinum on the basis I'm not switching sides. No plans to stay at Marriott here either.

 

[burmans]

Given the noise this has generated in the US blog sites and the opportunities it opens up, am surprised how quite things are here!

 

[boomy]

Given the noise this has generated in the US blog sites and the opportunities it opens up, am surprised how quite things are here!

I suspect there aren't many Marriott loyalists here hence the lack of whinging about the "unfairness" of the merger.

 

[get me outta here]

I have about 56K Marriott points, will they be worth less somehow? Pity I can't put them over to AA to make up a deficit of 6000 AA miles.

I suspect there aren't many Marriott loyalists here hence the lack of whinging about the "unfairness" of the merger.